NY State Senate Bill 2025-S7340

Senate Bill S7340

2025-2026 Legislative Session

Authorizes Michael J. Cappiello to purchase service credit for service with the Long Island Railroad Company police department

download bill text pdf

Current Bill Status - In Senate Committee Civil Service And Pensions Committee

Introduced
- In Committee Assembly
- In Committee Senate
- On Floor Calendar Assembly
- On Floor Calendar Senate
- Passed Assembly
- Passed Senate
Delivered to Governor
Signed By Governor

Please enter your contact information

First Name

Last Name

Email Address

A valid email address is required.

Home address is used to determine the senate district in which you reside. Your support or opposition to this bill is then shared immediately with the senator who represents you.

Optional services from the NY State Senate:

Create an account. An account allows you to officially support or oppose key legislation, sign petitions with a single click, and follow issues, committees, and bills that matter to you. When you create an account, you agree to this platform's terms of participation.

Include a custom message for your Senator? (Optional)

Enter a message to your senator. Many New Yorkers use this to share the reasoning behind their support or opposition to the bill. Others might share a personal anecdote about how the bill would affect them or people they care about.

Actions

View Actions

	Assembly Actions - Lowercase Senate Actions - UPPERCASE
Apr 10, 2025	referred to civil service and pensions

2025-S7340 (ACTIVE) - Details

See Assembly Version of this Bill:: A7813
Current Committee:: Senate Civil Service And Pensions
Law Section:: Retirement
Versions Introduced in Other Legislative Sessions:: 2021-2022: S6302, A7217
2023-2024: S6912, A7260

2025-S7340 (ACTIVE) - Summary

Authorizes Michael J. Cappiello to purchase service credit for service with the Long Island Railroad Company police department prior to its merger with the MTA and the state retirement system.

2025-S7340 (ACTIVE) - Sponsor Memo

                                 
BILL NUMBER: S7340

SPONSOR: WEIK
 
TITLE OF BILL:

An act authorizing Michael J. Cappiello to purchase service credit for
service with the Long Island Railroad Company police department

 
PURPOSE:

To grant Michael J. Cappiello the ability to transfer up to three years
of service credit with the Long Island Railroad Company police depart-
ment to the State and Local police and fire retirement system.

 
SUMMARY OF PROVISIONS:

Section 1: Permits Mr. Cappiello the ability to transfer up to three
years of service credit with the Long Island Railroad Company police
department to the New York state and local police and fire retirement
system.

Section 2: Provides that all past service costs shall be borne by the

State.

Section 3: Sets the effective date.

 
JUSTIFICATION:

Michael J. Cappiello was an officer of the Long Island Railroad Company
police department ("LIRRPD") for two and one-half years until 1995. At
that time, the LIRRPD was part of the Federal Railroad Retirement
System. After his employment with the LIRRPD, Mr.  Cappiello joined the
Suffolk County police department, which is part of the New York state
and local police and fire retirement system ("State System"), where he
has been employed continuously.

In 1998, the LIRRPD and the Metro North Railroad police departments were
consolidated into the MTA Police Retirement Program ("MTA Plan"). The
MTA Plan is a defined benefit pension plan that is not part of the State
System. In 2015, the Legislature passed a statute that permitted employ-
ees of the MTA Plan, i.e., LIRRPD employees employed on or after 1998,
to transfer their service time in the MTA Plan to the State System
(Chapter 533, Laws 2015). As Mr. Cappiello left the LIRRPD before 1998,
and was therefore never part of the MTA Plan, he was, and still is,
unable to transfer his LIRRPD time to the State System.

This legislation would permit Mr. Cappiello to transfer and credit up to
three years of service time in the LIRRPD to the State System.

 
LEGISLATIVE HISTORY:

2023 S6912A Civil Service and Pensions

2022 S6302A Passed Senate

 
FISCAL IMPLICATIONS:

See fiscal note.

 
EFFECTIVE DATE:
Immediately.

2025-S7340 (ACTIVE) - Bill Text download pdf

                             
                     S T A T E   O F   N E W   Y O R K
 ________________________________________________________________________
 
                                   7340
 
                        2025-2026 Regular Sessions
 
                             I N  S E N A T E
 
                              April 10, 2025
                                ___________
 
 Introduced  by  Sen.  WEIK  --  read twice and ordered printed, and when
   printed to be committed to the Committee on Civil Service and Pensions
 
 AN ACT authorizing Michael J. Cappiello to purchase service  credit  for
   service with the Long Island Railroad Company police department

   THE  PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK, REPRESENTED IN SENATE AND ASSEM-
 BLY, DO ENACT AS FOLLOWS:
 
   Section 1. Notwithstanding any other  provision  of  law,  Michael  J.
 Cappiello,  a  former  member of the Long Island Railroad Company police
 department, shall be eligible to apply to purchase up to three years  of
 service  credit  for  such  employment with the New York state and local
 police and fire retirement system if, within one year of  the  effective
 date  of  this  act,  he shall (1) file a written request to that effect
 with such retirement system; and (2) shall pay to the New York state and
 local police and fire retirement system a sum equal to  the  product  of
 the  number  of years of service being claimed and three percent of such
 member's compensation  earned  during  the  twelve  months  of  credited
 service  immediately preceding the date that the member made application
 for credit pursuant to this section.
   § 2. All past service costs attributable to the implementation of this
 act shall be borne by the state of New York.
   § 3. This act shall take effect immediately.
   FISCAL NOTE.--Pursuant to Legislative Law, Section 50:
   This bill would allow Michael J. Cappiello, a current  member  of  the
 New  York  State  and Local Police and Fire Retirement System (NYSLPFRS)
 employed by Suffolk County, the ability to purchase up to three years of
 service credit for employment as a police officer with the  Long  Island
 Railroad  Company. Under current law, service with the Long Island Rail-
 road Company must be credited in the Metropolitan Transportation Author-
 ity police retirement program  before  it  can  be  transferred  to  the
 NYSLPFRS. Michael J. Cappiello never became a member of the Metropolitan
 
  EXPLANATION--Matter in ITALICS (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
                       [ ] is old law to be omitted.
                                                            LBD04566-02-5
 S. 7340                             2

 
 Transportation  Authority police retirement program and therefore has no
 service credit to transfer.
   If  this  bill  is  enacted during the 2025 Legislative Session, there
 will be an immediate past service cost  of  approximately  $171,000.  Of
 this  amount,  approximately  $18,000  will  be  borne  by the member to
 purchase the additional service. The remaining $153,000 will be borne by
 the State of New York as a one-time payment,  based  on  the  assumption
 that payment will be made on March 1, 2026.
   This bill will not increase the future annual contributions of Suffolk
 County.
   Summary of relevant resources:
   Membership  data as of March 31, 2024 was used in measuring the impact
 of the proposed change, the same data used in the April 1, 2024 actuari-
 al valuation. Distributions and other statistics can  be  found  in  the
 2024  Report  of the Actuary and the 2024 Annual Comprehensive Financial
 Report.  The actuarial assumptions and methods used are described in the
 2024 Annual Report to the Comptroller on Actuarial Assumptions, and  the
 Codes,  Rules  and  Regulations  of  the  State  of  New York: Audit and
 Control.  The Market Assets and GASB Disclosures are found in the  March
 31, 2024 New York State and Local Retirement System Financial Statements
 and Supplementary Information.
   This  fiscal note does not constitute a legal opinion on the viability
 of the proposed change nor is it intended to serve as a  substitute  for
 the professional judgment of an attorney.
   This  estimate, dated March 27, 2025, and intended for use only during
 the 2025 Legislative Session, is Fiscal Note No. 2025-96. As Chief Actu-
 ary of the New York State and Local Retirement System, I, Aaron Schottin
 Young, hereby certify that this analysis complies with applicable  Actu-
 arial  Standards of Practice as well as the Code of Professional Conduct
 and Qualification Standards for Actuaries Issuing Statements of Actuari-
 al Opinion of the American Academy of Actuaries, of which I am a member.

Comments

Open Legislation is a forum for New York State legislation. All comments are subject to review and community moderation is encouraged.

Comments deemed off-topic, commercial, campaign-related, self-promotional; or that contain profanity, hate or toxic speech; or that link to sites outside of the nysenate.gov domain are not permitted, and will not be published. Attempts to intimidate and silence contributors or deliberately deceive the public, including excessive or extraneous posting/posts, or coordinated activity, are prohibited and may result in the temporary or permanent banning of the user. Comment moderation is generally performed Monday through Friday. By contributing or voting you agree to the Terms of Participation and verify you are over 13.

Create an account. An account allows you to sign petitions with a single click, officially support or oppose key legislation, and follow issues, committees, and bills that matter to you. When you create an account, you agree to this platform's terms of participation.